GPS Team
Annette Cycon
Co-Founder and Co-President
Annette has been a social worker, group facilitator and trainer for over 30 years. As the Founder and former Director of Training of MotherWoman, over 17 years, she developed programs and is well known as an advocate for mothers and a trainer in Perinatal Mood Disorders, particularly regarding the impact of structural social justice issues such as poverty, race and culture on maternal mental health. Annette has spearheaded GPS’s international program bringing GPS’s maternal mental health to program to Guatemala and other Spanish speaking communities.
Black Leaders Support Group Facilitator
GPS Training Team
GPS Training Team
GSP Postpartum Support Group Facilitator
Recovery Support Group Facilitator
Business Administrator
GPS Postpartum Support Group Facilitator
GPS Postpartum Support Group Facilitator
GPS Training Team
Black Leaders Support Group Facilitator
Stella Zine
Recovery Support Group Facilitator
Stella is part of the ex-patient/survivor/consumer movement and was a certified peer specialist at Central State Hospital in Georgia. She was a support group facilitator for survivors of domestic violence, is a former board member for Atlanta Harm Reduction Coalition, founding member of Solutions not Punishment Coalition and facilitates racial equity groups for activist and professor Loretta Ross.
GPS Postpartum Support Group Facilitator
GPS Recovery Support Group Facilitator
GPS Training Team
Recovery Support Group Facilitator
GPS Training Team
Black Leaders Support Group Facilitator
Annette Cycon
Co-Founder and Co-President
Annette has been a social worker, group facilitator and trainer for over 30 years. As the Founder and former Director of Training of MotherWoman, over 17 years, she developed programs and is well known as an advocate for mothers and a trainer in Perinatal Mood Disorders, particularly regarding the impact of structural social justice issues such as poverty, race and culture on maternal mental health. Annette has spearheaded GPS’s international program bringing GPS’s maternal mental health to program to Guatemala and other Spanish speaking communities.
Betty Doherty
Betty is a woman in long-term recovery and has held many positions in the field of recovery in MA since 1998. Betty is currently a Family Recovery Support Specialist with the First Steps Together Program working with moms and dads who have substance dependency on their recovery and parenting journey. Betty enjoys leading GPS Recovery groups for both men and women. She also serves as Board Chair for Self Esteem Boston, a program that helps women feel better about themselves from the inside out.
Chris Leonard
Black Leaders Support Group Facilitator
Chris (she/her) is a skillful process facilitator who brings mindful awareness from her training as a Zen Shiatsu therapist into her work supporting workers and communities impacted by traumatic events and grief. She is based in Toronto, Ontario in Canada.
Crystal Gurney
GPS Training Team
Crystal took the GPS Training over 10 years ago, founded Kitsap HOPE Circle to serve perinatal parenting people in Washington state and has led over 700 groups. She is the GPS lead trainer in the ongoing GPS trainings offered by Perinatal Support Washington. She brings her compassion, humor and an innovative art-based approach to running groups to support people and communities in transition.
Deborah Rodriguez
GPS Training Team
Bio Coming Soon
Karina Bales
GSP Moms of Infants
Support Group Facilitator
Karina is a Social Worker and former Industrial Engineer. Karina's passion for social work and career change can be traced back to working with the underserved population in São Paulo, Brazil, where she spent significant time working on with orphaned children and homeless senior citizens. Karina is currently working to obtain her Master's degree, and currently she works with newborns suffering from Abstinence Syndrome and their families. Karina is a mother of three girls and loves working and helping mothers in any stage of motherhood and a GPS Group Peer Support Facilitator for Moms of Infants Groups.
Kelle Kirk
GSP Moms of Infants
Support Group Facilitator
GPS Training Team
Kelle is a mama, partner, mental health therapist and lifelong learner. Being in a community and facilitating groups is a joie de vivre experience in her life. In her private practice and in GPS circles she hopes to support all of us to “Do Something Different.”
Khalil Saddiq
Black Leaders Support Group Facilitator
GPS Training Team
Khalil is a proud Marine Corps veteran and community volunteer, racial equity consultant and development specialist, and a community activist. He is the founder of 901 Consulting specializing in transforming organizational culture through a racial equity lens. Khalil is a co-facilitator for the GPS Black Leaders Groups and part of the GPS Training Team.
Lea Wetzel
Recovery Support Group Facilitator
Lea is a certified Instructor of the NAFFA parenting program, Mothers are Sacred & Fathers are Sacred, a GPS Group Peer Support Facilitator for Recovery Groups, ECP&R Apprentice, as well as a White Bison Warrior Down Recovery Coach.
Being in in recovery and being a survivor herself, Lea has developed pathways of non-judgmental, trauma-informed, safe spaces to support others, in empowering themselves on the red road of healing.
Linda Flewellen
Administrative Coordinator
Linda brings her passion, attention to detail and strong organizational skills to GPS along with her positive attitude that never stops. She is passionate about her creative, innovative, and organized approach.
Liz Friedman
Co-Founder and Co-President
Liz sits on the MA Commission on the Status of Women, is on the Advisory Boards of MA PPD Fund and It Takes A Village, and has been involved in successful campaigns to pass Massachusetts’ legislation including PPD, Paid Sick Time, Paid Family Leave, Equitable Disability Insurance and Pregnant Workers Fairness Act which she led to passage. As the Founder and former Director of Programming of MotherWoman, she spearheaded the development of the evidence base for GPS Support Groups, developed a public health initiative to ensure that perinatal mothers receive the mental health care they deserve in MA, and in 2010, received the Ted Women’s Award for her outstanding work on behalf of mothers.
Mandy Breaux
Postpartum Moms Support Group
Mandy is a Women's Health Nurse Practitioner at South Cove Community Health Center providing perinatal care in Mandarin to Asian women.
Marcy Langrock
Project Manager
GPS Training Team
Marcy earned her M.B.A. and has worked as a project manager for high-tech companies, healthcare-focused organizations as well as various non-profits. She completed her GPS Certification in 2021 and began facilitating parent and caregiver support groups, focusing on supporting the autism community and disability justice work. While earning her certification, she facilitated groups for Loretta Ross and Loan Tran in their “Calling In” classes and for their anti-racism work. She continues to facilitate groups and create curriculum for other areas of need in her community.
Megan Roberts
Postpartum Moms Support Group
Megan is a maternal health advocate, peer support specialist, and writer who works with Postpartum Support International. She is passionately committed to her work with parenting families and her own personal growth.
Meyleen Valasquez
GPS Training Team
Meyleen Velasquez is an immigrant Latinx psychotherapist specializing in perinatal and infant mental health. She is a social work doctoral student researching anti-racist and anti-oppressive mental health services. Her practice supports women and clinicians working from an anti-oppressive framework. Meyleen identified as a Brown person for most of her life until several years ago when Vitiligo changed how she navigates the world.
Mia Edidin
Michelle Hagues-Fullwood
Black Leaders Support Group Facilitator
Nalley Willis
Program Administrator
GPS Training Team
GPS en Español Lead Trainer
Nallely is an educator and peer counselor who is passionate about Latina/x perinatal health. As the Program Director at Heartsounds, she works with low-income moms to provide doula, lactation, and prenatal support at no-cost. She has led GPS Postpartum Mothers groups in Spanish for many years, serving primarily immigrant, refugee and undocumented women living precariously on the border between AZ and Mexico. Nallely is a member of the GPS Training Team, as well as lead trainer of GPS en Espanol.
Sarah Circelli
GPS Training Team
Sara works as a Family Resource Coordinator at an Early Intervention agency and leads a team focused on supporting transitions home for babies and their caregivers. As the mother of 3 children, she knows first-hand how isolating the journey into parenthood can be and is passionate about supporting the perinatal mental health of caregivers. Sara is a co-facilitator for the Postpartum group caregivers. Sara is a co-facilitator for the Postpartum Group
Sarah Ahern
GPS Recovery Support Group Facilitator
Sarah is a Woman in long-term recovery, a peer recovery supervisor, and a GPS Group Peer Support facilitator living in Massachusetts. Being a person with lived experience in addiction and recovery, has helped guide a deep understanding of trauma, multiple pathways, and a non-judgmental, trauma-informed approach to supporting others to find their own pathways to wellness.
Sarah Garcia
GPS Training Team
Sarah works at a high school as a social worker and has brought GPS to her work with teen parents and is implementing a school-wide GPS program. Sarah's areas of focus are homeless, foster, at-risk, youth of color and teen moms, as well as trauma-based yoga.
Stella Zine
Recovery Support Group Facilitator
Stella is part of the ex-patient/survivor/consumer movement and was a certified peer specialist at Central State Hospital in Georgia. She was a support group facilitator for survivors of domestic violence, is a former board member for Atlanta Harm Reduction Coalition, founding member of Solutions not Punishment Coalition and facilitates racial equity groups for activist and professor Loretta Ross.
Tessa Smith
Black Leaders Support Group Facilitator
GPS Training Team
Tessa is a community partner committed to health and racial equity, who works for the Yolo County Health and Human Services Agency in Woodland, California. Tessa holds positions at the state, regional, and local levels and is passionately committed to advocating for the rights and safety of Black Men. Most recently, Tessa has partnered with Loretta Ross in ending White Supremacy and addressing the calling out culture.
Tyona Ezeilo
GPS Training Team
Tyona is a master’s level social worker who utilizes a compassionate, trauma informed, solutions focused, systems approach. She is a certified trainer for the Brazelton Institute. Tyona works with groups and parents to encourage healthy relationships, compassion, empathy, and self care.
Valeria Chambers
Black Leaders Support Group Facilitator
Using her lived experience as a Certified Peer Specialist in mental health recovery, Valeria works as a Peer Consultant at the Center of Excellence for Psychosocial and Systemic Research, Massachusetts General Hospital and at the Health Equity Research Lab, Cambridge Health Alliance. She is the founder and lead organizer of Blacks Voices: Pathways4Recovery, a state-wide advocacy and leadership support network for Blacks and African Americans.